MEXICO CITY — As Mexico basks in the glow of its first best-director Oscar, for Alfonso Cuaron
of
Gravity, a new generation of homegrown filmmakers wonders whether the magic of the golden
statuette will rub off on them.

Gravity won seven Oscars, the most of any film at Sunday’s awards, and was lauded for its
special effects.

Cuaron’s win is the first best-director Oscar for a Latin American.

But the 52-year-old filmmaker has spent most of his career outside Mexico, after he struggled to
raise financing for projects back home, and fellow leading directors Guillermo del Toro and
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also both moved abroad.

A new generation of Mexican directors has been quick to point out that Cuaron’s work has had
little to do with the domestic industry.
Gravity was made for an estimated $100 million by Warner Bros., while directors in Mexico
have to scramble to drum up just $2 million for a film.

“The only place where you cannot see Mexican film is in Mexico,” said Ivan Avila Duenas, who
presented his fourth feature film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s International
Film Festival — on the same day as the Oscars.

When Cuaron scored his first hit in the 1990s, Mexican film output was anemic, with only 10 or
so releases a year. Last year yielded more than 100, aided by tax breaks for corporate sponsors and
co-productions between Mexican and foreign companies.

Since the “three amigos” — Cuaron, del Toro and Inarritu — rose to international fame, another
generation of filmmakers has matured and won a string of international awards.

But the new crop has struggled to achieve the same level of box-office success and support.